Birdwatching

Actually, I was never into birdwatching. But even at that, it was quite a huge treat to discover a momma hummingbird had moved in!!! Even better to find that she had very conveniently located her nest at eye level, right by a pathway, for all of us to keep an eye on her and her brood. Which we did. In fact, I became a hummer stalker for about a month!

This first pic is mom on the nest; after the babies got bigger, we almost never saw her anymore.

I missed getting the "egg" pictures. Now I'm kicking myself for that. It's amazing how fast they grow. First a few little pinfeathers, then more and more.

Momma Hummer seemed a bit cautious at first, but she relaxed enough not to subject me to any more flybys as I snapped pictures. That first and only flyby was a little disconcerting!! Her motor was pretty loud when she was close!

More feathers, but they're still pretty lumpy in the bottom of the nest.

The next thing we knew, there were two little beaks poking up over the edge of the nest!

In the most sweet stage, they looked like tiny little fluffs of feathers, with eyes & beaks sticking out. Isn't it just like adorable children?

The day I took the "lunch" photos, Momma wouldn't feed them until I'd disappeared. Fortunately, I was able to snap pics from a nearby window, so she didn't really see me, since I was farther away anyway.

We were a good host family, and we promptly hung a hummer feeder by the deck, but we sure never saw a single bird show up to feed.

(This is Mom feeding the brother)

I have no idea how to tell if a humming bird is male or female, but I dubbed the one on the right the brother, and the one on the left the sister. Brother was more daring and would sit on the edge of the nest more. Sister stayed down more, preened, and took an extra day before she left the nest for good. You can see the iridescent green showing up in the feathers here.

I hope you enjoy these hummingbird pictures! I took a ton more pics, and really enjoyed watching one of Heavenly Father's wonders. I have a couple shots of the babies trying their wings, but when a hummingbird does that, it's just a blur!!